(Note: This blog entry is based on the text for “Who’s In and Who’s Out?” originally shared on October 9, 2024. It was the 332nd video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.)
When it comes to heaven, who’s in and who’s
out? Today, we’re going to find out.
The last verse in the Gospel reading that
will be heard in the vast majority of churches in the world this coming Sunday,
Mark 10:17-31, is Mark 10:31, with Jesus speaking,
31 But many who are first
will be last, and the last will be first.”
I’d like to begin with that. 😊
I read a story online the other day about
rock and pop singer Billy Joel that made me think of this text.
The story said that Billy Joel makes $20,000
less than he could at each of his arena concerts because of one policy.
Billy Joel sells no tickets to the front
rows.
He realized many years ago that scalpers
were inflating ticket prices for those seats. Only the very rich could buy
them. They would come and sit there with their cigars and girlfriends, and an
“entertain me, Piano Man” attitude, and a big-shot indolence.
The real fans, the enthusiastic ones, would
buy the tickets they could afford, usually at the back of the venue.
So, he started not selling the front-rows’
seats at all. Instead, he would send his road crow to the back of the room, to
the worst seats, and invite the real fans to come and sit in the front rows,
where they were really happy and excited to be, for the concert.
The same thing happens with Jesus in this
Sunday’s gospel reading. But the stakes are way higher.
How did we get there? It’s certainly no
surprise.
Jesus starts this week’s reading from Mark
10 with a continuation of last week’s themes from Mark 10, where
Jesus was asked by the Pharisees to give his opinion on the religious legality
of divorce and the exception granted by Moses. Jesus’ reply was that God was
not focused on loopholes, but on the need of human beings for a Savior. Jesus.
And when his disciples hindered children from approaching Him, he told them
that children demonstrate the very nature of our relationship with God:
not status, but dependency.
And last week’s Gospel reading was a
continuation of the themes from the week before that, from the end of Mark 9!
Jesus tells his disciples that the relationship with Jesus that produces what
we do is what the good news is all about, not keeping the letter of the
religious law. Jesus said that anything that challenges that relationship
should be removed from our lives. He taught that who we are is defined by Whose
we are, or we are nothing.
The same themes show up this week.
Three continues readings from Mark 9 and
10 all have the same message. They tell us that, when it comes to the
already-but-not-fully-yet Kingdom of God, when it comes to who’s in and who’s out,
who’s saved and who’s not, it’s not up to us. Being in is a gift from God. It
was given to us at the cross.
But what does it mean for how we live in
this world now?
Do people become rich because God is
blessing them? If a person is poor, is it because God is cursing them? Are
riches a sign that wealthy people are going to heaven, and is poverty a sign
that poor people are not? Who’s in and who’s out?
We begin with a story. It’s a story about
the kind of rich guys who used to buy up the front rows at Billy Joel’s
concerts, starting with Mark 10:17,
17 As he was
setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him,
“Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 Jesus
said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.
Jesus gets right to the point.
The man asks what he has to do to go to heaven.
Jesus’ answer is direct. Jesus
makes a reference to Psalm 14:2-3,
The Lord looks down from heaven on
humankind
to see if there
are any who are wise,
who seek after
God.
3 They have all
gone astray, they are all alike perverse;
there is no one
who does good,
no, not one.
Jesus observes that no one is
good but God alone. Is the man saying that Jesus is God?
Jesus continues, starting with Mark
10:19,
19 You
know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery;
You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud;
Honor your father and mother.’” 20 He said to him,
“Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.”
The man responds that he is
good, that he keeps the Law, and Jesus loves him for it, but is there faith
behind those works, or is the man just keeping the letter of the Law? Checking
the boxes? Jesus continues with verse 21,
21 Jesus,
looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own,
and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then
come, follow me.” 22 When he heard this, he was
shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.
Yup, everybody wants to be
Bonhoeffer. Until it’s time to be Bonhoeffer. Everybody wants to be a disciple
of Jesus. Until it’s time to be a disciple of Jesus. Everybody wants to live by
faith. Until it’s time to live by faith.
You might remember the bumper
sticker that reflected the life philosophy of many, “He who dies with the most
toys wins.” The man in this text had many toys and went away grieving.
Jesus continues, in verse 23,
23 Then Jesus
looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who
have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 And
the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again,
“Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It
is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is
rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
That’s a pretty good image, not
that anyone was thinking about the image. They were stunned by what Jesus had
just said. Mark says, “They were greatly astounded”.
Jesus talked about money and the use of
money more than anything else except the Kingdom of God. Why? I think that one
reason could be because how we get and use our money is a direct expression of
our basic values.
People living around Jesus
during Jesus’ physical time on earth believed that those who were rich were
being blessed by God because they were righteous. People who were poor and/or
sick were being cursed by God; they were being punished for their sins. There
are people who believe the same things today.
So if, as Jesus says, rich
people aren’t going to heaven, who is?
Mark continues in verse 26
with the disciples in shock,
26 They
were greatly astounded and said to one another, “Then who can be
saved?” 27 Jesus looked at them and said, “For
mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”
We can’t earn our way into
salvation. It’s impossible. It doesn’t depend upon our bank account. It can
only come as a gift from God because of the cross. It comes by faith, a living
relationship with the one true living God. It has nothing to do with wealth. In
fact, Jesus said, wealth may be a problem!
So, does every
Christian, to be a Christian, have to sell everything they have and give it to
the poor? Yes. Sort of. OK, let me explain that.
What is wealth before God? Nothing. It is our
connection to God that matters.
Anything other than dependence upon God,
places an idol at the center of our lives.
In Paul’s letter to the young pastor Timothy
he didn’t say, “Money is the root of all evil.” He said, in 1 Timothy 6:10,
10 For
the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be
rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many
pains.
The faith we have been given
reconfigures our lives. It reorients us toward generosity and to serve God by
striving to make this world more like the world it was in Creation and will be
again.
Giving 10% isn’t enough. Giving is about who
we are. That’s the point of giving everything.
Giving 25%, or 50%, or 75% isn’t enough.
It’s not about meeting a standard. The
Christian life is about lives of gratitude in response to what God has
already done for us on the cross. We can’t possibly give enough money to pay
for that. Jesus says, in Mark 8:36-37,
36 For
what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37 Indeed,
what can they give in return for their life?
We live in a society of people with many
possessions. Do we now think that we are independent of God? (That would
explain a lot, wouldn’t it?) How are we to manage them?
As Christians. From the inside out. From
faith.
Every dollar we have is a means for
ministry. Everything we buy in some way supports the work God has given us to
do. Everything we spend is an expression of who we are. This is life that is
real life. Because who we are is an outcome of Whose we are.
Our lives are lived in response to what God
has already done for us, not to get more.
Jesus has already won the prize. He did it
for us.
The cross means that all who believe and are
baptized, have already won the Lottery, the big prize, because of the blood of
Jesus shed for you and for me on the cross. It hasn’t come to us by chance, but
by choice,
16 “For
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes
in him may not perish but may have eternal life. (John
3:16)
There is no righteousness in wealth itself,
but there is a problem. The problem in wealth is that it tends to make us think
that we are independent of God. We who are wealthy are to be rich toward God.
There is no condemnation in poverty. In
fact, poverty makes us more likely to know that we are dependent upon God.
But there is also no romanticization of
poverty in the Christian life. We who have means for ministry now cheerfully
use them to build up the Body of Christ and in service toward those who can be
helped by them.
We are blessed to be a blessing. To build
the abundant life of body, mind, and spirit for all people in accord with God’s
will for all people.
Martin Luther, the 16th century
Church reformer, once said, “I
have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I
have placed in God's hands, that I still possess.”
Because we are Christians, we are rich
toward God. So, how good is good enough?
Our reading concludes with Jesus’ response
to Peter’s pointed, though exaggerated, claim that the disciples had left
everything to follow Jesus, starting with Mark 10:28,
28 Peter began to say to
him, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” 29 Jesus
said, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or
sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake
of the good news, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in
this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with
persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many
who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”
That’s some good news about getting lots of
good stuff until, wait!, did he say something about “with persecutions”?
The early church, at about the time the
Gospels were written, had begun to experience everything that Jesus said would
happen.
They had become a community. Those whose
families had rejected them had found a new family in the Christian community.
Those who had their possessions taken away, found a Christian community in
which Christians took care of one another.
Their relationship with God had found its
expression in their relationship with one another, a relationship that would
begin now and would endure in eternal life.
But, in addition to the rejection by family
and friends, many had been rejected by their government, the Roman Empire.
Christians experienced persecutions, but
they were not persecuted for their faith. The Romans Empire could care less
about what people in their conquered territories believed, as long as they
believed that their beliefs were just as valid as everybody else’s beliefs.
They expected everybody to get along, for
the sake of peace within the Empire, so that their soldiers could wage war to
expand the Empire, and not to have to police the populace.
When Christians and Jews said that there was
only one God, while the Romans and all of the rest of their Empire said that
there were many gods, persecution broke out and it ran warm and hot over the
early centuries of the Church.
Christians could not get into the army,
which was the only path to highly desirable civil service jobs. They were
sometimes jailed, imprisoned, tortured, or killed. Sometimes they were killed
for entertainment, or for sport, or in a show of power, and sometimes just to
issue a warning.
But they also lived on the other side of the
cross and the resurrection of Jesus. They had no power and were entirely
dependent before God. But God is powerful, and ultimately powerful, and God is
dependable.
Who’s in and who’s out of God’s reign is
God’s call. As one of my colleagues described a professor in seminary
summarizing the Bible’s book of Job, “God is God and you’re not.”
We can’t get good enough, but God saves us
with the cross. We come to recognize that we are wholly dependent upon God.
Maybe that’s what Jesus means when he says,
at the close of this text, in Mark 10:31
31 But many who are
first will be last, and the last will be first.”
We are a new Creation, born again, children
of God, God’s own people. A people set apart.
There is bad news for Christians in this
fallen and Sinful world. But there is also very good news. Jesus said, in John 16:33,
33 I
have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face
persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!”
The Dodgers are in the play-offs. Football
is at the beginning of its season, and basketball is in its pre-season. We’ll
be looking every day for the next several months to see who’s in and who’s out.
But who’s ultimately in and who’s ultimately out is not a personal concern for
we who are being saved.
It is the good news of our mission in
the world. Salvation comes as a gift for all who accept the gift of faith and
are baptized as a gift. Out ticket to heaven is stamped “Paid In Full” because
of the cross.
Jesus is calling you. He is calling you to
live a real life. A true life. A redeemed life. An eternal life. There is only
one way to live it. Receive the gift of salvation, and follow Him.
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